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Belarus's Amnesty for Ales Bialiatski Begins to Correct Government Wrongs

Washington

June 23, 2014

In response to the early release of Belarusian political prisoner Ales Bialiatski, president of the Human Rights Center Viasna and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Freedom House issued the following statement:

“We are pleased to see Ales Bialiatski freed from prison, though he never should have been arrested, convicted and imprisoned in the first place,” said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House. “The amnesty for Bialiatski over the weekend is a positive first step in mending the damage done by the Belarusian government by wrongly imprisoning this renowned human rights defender for spurious reasons. But an amnesty is not a full rehabilitation, and the Belarusian government should clear Bialiatski’s record of all charges. If President Lukashenka’s government is truly prepared to acknowledge and rectify past mistakes, it has to go further and immediately release the seven remaining political prisoners in Belarus and expunge the criminal records of all current and former political prisoners in the country.”

Belarus is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2014, Freedom of the Press 2014 and Freedom on the Net 2013.